Glavin’s sacrifice comes full circle for Bridgewater-Raynham

Bridgewater-Raynham senior Tyler Glavin moved from the infield to play outfield for the first time in his life during the season. But a mid-season injury to senior captain Dave Miller that restricted Miller to designated hitter put Glavin right back at shortstop, where he made sever...

On every championship team, players have to make sacrifices, whether it be at-bats, innings or even changing positions.

In Tyler Glavin’s case, the Bridgewater-Raynham senior moved from the infield to play outfield for the first time in his life during the season.

But a mid-season injury to senior captain Dave Miller that restricted Miller to designated hitter put Glavin right back at shortstop, where he made several key plays on Saturday as B-R defeated Nashoba, 4-0, to win the Div. 1 state championship.

“Glavin has been a team player the whole year,” said B-R coach John Kearney. “He was in the infield, I moved him out to the outfield. He did it without question, became a great outfielder, real good outfielder, and then moved right back into the infield again and stood tall filling in for Dave Miller.

“What a job he did at short.”

Had it not been for Glavin’s defensive play on Saturday, senior Mike Bruemmel, who pitched a two-hitter, would have surrendered a few more hits and maybe even a few runs.

In the bottom of the third inning, Bruemmel made a nice stab at a come-backer and tossed it to Glavin at second base, hoping to start a double play. The ball would’ve sailed into center field for an error had Glavin not made a nice jumping catch, and then found the base in time for the force for the first out of the inning. The next Nashoba batter hit one deep into the shortstop/third base hole, but Glavin robbed him of the hit and got a fielder’s choice at first.

“That was a great play,” said Kearney. “He had a heck of a game. Definitely, one of our standouts today. But he’s had a great playoff run. He’s been fantastic.”

Added Glavin: “This feeling is unbelievable. It feels great to be apart of it all.”

Switching back to the dirt wasn’t smooth at first.

“The first couple games I actually did make a couple of errors because it was tough to get adjusted to it,” said Glavin. “But then it was all comfortable after a couple games.”

Glavin, who was third in hitting for B-R at .370 as of June 12, cited getting his bat going and having an errorless game down the stretch of the season as confidence boosters.

“I didn’t doubt that Tyler Glavin could step in and do a good job,” said Kearney. “I wasn’t concerned about that.”

Glavin couldn’t have picked a better pitcher to play behind in the Trojans’ biggest game.

“I’ve played with (Mike Bruemmel) my entire life,” said Glavin, “and it’s just great. I love playing behind him.”

Page 2 of 2 - Kearney summed up Glavin’s playoff run, both in the box and on the diamond, in nine words: “What a playoff run he had, offensively and defensively.”